7.62x51 Brass Sorting

[Tony243]

I decided to do a "one and done" purchase of once-fired military brass to last the rest of my shooting life.

So now to the sorting...

This stuff is all over the place in both weight and length, so my question is how tightly do I sort it for good results? The lengths vary from 1.983 to 2.032, but 95% are in the 1.994 to 2.018 range. Weights vary from174.0 to 181.8, most between 175.5-180.5.

I plan to pull a group of 200 that will be within one grain in weight and all trimmed to 2.010 for precision shooting. That will leave 800 with 5 grains weight variance, most under the trim to length of 2.010.

I will be using several different bullet weights to feed two bolt guns and an AR10. Should I just cull small groups for each bullet and try to keep it sorted after firing? I'm looking at all this brass and just shaking my head. Need advice! Thanks!

 

[can1010]

for military brass sort by make and year. sorting by weight is useless, only sort by case volume once fired in your chamber. military brass as you have seen will have weights all over the place but volume on fired brass is pretty close usually under 1gr most at .5gr. trim your brass to a consistent length after firing and sizing, the exact number don't matter just being the same use your shortest average length

 

[Doom2]

You have a large variation in COL because some of these cases were shot out of a machine gun with a large generous chamber. You will find that the longer ones will also be harder to size so lube generously with a good case lube like Hornady Unique. Do not use a dry lube such as One Shot as you will have stuck cases. You may also find that the base of the case is expanded too much to chamber after full length sizing. I would advise sizing with a small base die and using a case gauge to check each case before chambering in your rifle.

You will probably see ejector marks on the MG cases.

As someone noted sort by head stamp and year. Once you have that you might sort within those by weight but it probably isn't worth much.

 

[Mikecr]

Seems like the beginning of a huge waste of efforts..
Do yourself a favor, drop it all into a trash can, and just walk away from it.

 

[TRexF16]

Seems like the beginning of a huge waste of efforts..
Do yourself a favor, drop it all into a trash can, and just walk away from it.

Concur with the above, unless they're LC Match, which I'm sure you'd have mentioned if they were.
I've got many hundreds of factory loaded once-fired (in a bolt rifle, not AR or machine gun), Federal and PMC .308 Win brass, deprimed and wet-tumble polished, that I'll sell for 30 cents each plus shipping.
Anybody needs 'em drop me a PM.

 

[Doom2]

Seems like the beginning of a huge waste of efforts..
Do yourself a favor, drop it all into a trash can, and just walk away from it.

My experience was on a one-time purchase of 500 for a bolt gun and I did get good brass (LC-04, 05, and 07). Was it worth it? It was a learning experience. Would I do it again? No. Hands have too much arthritis. Biggest problem? Primer pocket reaming, stuck cases, rounds that wouldn't chamber due to base expansion and not using small base die. Now I purchase Lapua.

 

[Ckgworks]

I my experience, LC is fine brass if you're willing to put in the effort to it-I would size it all with a small base 308 die, trim them to a consistent length and sort by year. Ream inside flash hole, swage primer pocket and shoot it. It's capable of shooting small consistent groups contrary to what the brass snobs tell you. Depending on your Ar10 chamber you may want to set brass aside just for it, a slightly oversized chamber would create issues I wouldn't want to deal with in bolt guns. I'd say it's a crap shot anyway on getting precision loads the same for all 3 guns so in reality I'd probably end up splitting the brass up to gun specific lots......just my 2 cents and current inflation makes it worth less than last year.

Edit to add: once upon a time I made 260 brass from LC so you know I'm a gluten for punishment.......

 

[PddPdd]

I would size & trim the length before I would do any kind of comparison between them whether it's weight or case capacity.

 

[Tony243]

Thanks for the replies everyone! (Well, except for @Mikecr lol!). Y'all taught me so good info.
Almost 900 of them are LC 15 and LC 16. Remaining 100ish are LC 05 06 07 and FC 07.
Gonna make five rounds with five different loads of N550 and 168 SMKs to see if I'm just spinning my wheels. Will definitely case gauge them first though. Rifle is known 0.75MOA with the SMKs.
BTW, lots of stuck cases until I sized them wet with lanolin (I usually let it dry and don't need as much.) What a pita! But I got these for a dime each so...
I'll shoot my test loads before I say whether I would do it again

 

[TRexF16]

Hey, it keeps you off the street! That stuff is a lobor of love for me, but then, I have a brass fetish.

Rex

 

[cdherman]

Weight sorting DOES make sense, but only after head stamp etc. People that say that you can only determine internal capacity by direct measurement fail to understand that YOUR rifle chamber has a fixed (we hope for sure) internal dimension and after 1-3 firings, your brass now has filled that dimension. All that is left is simply the internal capacity inside the brass. Since brass is roughly 10x more dense than powder, it takes a LARGE variation in case capacity to matter.
Head stamp sorting accounts for varying annealing, neck thickness, flash holes etc. These are all quite important.

But in a given lot of like stamped cases, individual case capacity measurement with water is not needed. Should you desire to go to the next level, weight sorting is fine, individual water capacity is a redundant. Could you do it for a few cases to get an average if you are using quickload etc? Suspect it could be useful there since QL does have that parameter as an input. I own QL and have never bothered.

Don't let the water capacity quacks drive you crazy -- not needed. Sorting cases by headstamp however matters in many ways.

Thereafter, you need to shoot same cases into same gun, if accuracy matters. If you are just banging away, then learn to anneal (not a bad idea generally) and full length resize.

Do remember to trim to length however, in whatever process you embark upon, especially if FL resizing.....

 

[M1A1ABRAMS]

Thanks for the replies everyone! (Well, except for @Mikecr lol!). Y'all taught me so good info.
Almost 900 of them are LC 15 and LC 16. Remaining 100ish are LC 05 06 07 and FC 07.
Gonna make five rounds with five different loads of N550 and 168 SMKs to see if I'm just spinning my wheels. Will definitely case gauge them first though. Rifle is known 0.75MOA with the SMKs.
BTW, lots of stuck cases until I sized them wet with lanolin (I usually let it dry and don't need as much.) What a pita! But I got these for a dime each so...
I'll shoot my test loads before I say whether I would do it again

I believe Mike is trying to save you some headaches. And money in the long run if you're looking for precision. When you can buy the best brass out there for what may seem to be costly to some. May be cheaper in the end to buy new. Time is money as they say. But if you have the time & energy I say knock yourself out. I am sure it will be a learning curve. And when you factor in the cost of primers powder & bullets is it going to be cost worthy for you is what you will need to decide. Mike does not beat around the bush as they say. lol

 

[QuietTexan]

People that say that you can only determine internal capacity by direct measurement fail to understand that YOUR rifle chamber has a fixed (we hope for sure) internal dimension and after 1-3 firings, your brass now has filled that dimension.

Don't let the water capacity quacks drive you crazy -- not needed.

So your argument is based on the chamber having a fixed internal demension, yet actually measuring that demension via water capacity makes someone a quack

 

[Beluebow]

Sounds like a winter project. Should make for some good beater brass. No way would I waste time checking case capacity for an AR.